The Bird; The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych

New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2013. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. 306, [4] pages. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Some corners creased. Some pencil erasures noted (a few associated with typographical or grammatical issues in the text). Doug Wilson grew up memorizing the backs of baseball cards and dreaming of the big leagues. A member of the Society for American Baseball Research, he has written several baseball books. "I want to write about the good guys of the game of baseball--there is enough out there on the scandals, steroids and boorish behavior by players. I want to bring the good characters back to the forefront. I enjoy researching details and numbers to make sure everything is accurate, but my books are more than numbers. I like to write about the personalities of the players and what drives them. The best part of writing the books is interviewing the ex-players and listening to their stories." Wilson is the author of The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych and Brooks: The Biography of Brooks Robinson. Derived from a Kirkus Review: A reminder of the time when America fell in love with a tall, lanky, curly-haired pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. For a time in the 1970s, the country was in thrall to Mark Fidrych, who came to be known as "The Bird" for his resemblance to Big Bird. Fidrych emerged in the summer of 1976 and became an unlikely but legitimate phenomenon. Wilson tells the Bird's story in this biography of the Massachusetts native whose antics included tending to his own pitching mound during games and allegedly talking to the baseball. He paints Fidrych as a product of his time and argues that only in the 1970s could someone like Fidrych become such an icon. The beloved pitcher's every move drew national attention, and his appearances sold out stadiums, whether for away games or for the home games. Unfortunately, knee and throwing-shoulder injuries curtailed the career of the Bird. Wilson has clear affection for the star-crossed Fidrych. Fidrych, whose post-baseball career showed a man truly contented with life and with a deep passion for giving back to the world, died in 2009. Fidrych transfixed the country, albeit too briefly. This book serves as a reminder of why.